Welcome to Birthyourway's Blog. This space is intended to serve as an interactive site for Doula related stuff based in Ottawa and around the globe. The archive links on the right hand margin will help you identify topics of interest to you. Your pictures of real pregnant bodies- stretch marks and all- would be most appreciated as contributions. Share your birth stories, concerns and comments by submitting to birthyourway@gmail.com

Monday, April 17, 2006

body representation

How do we perceive the world around us? How do we interact with the imprinting of our world as we perceive it? How do symbols and representations of abstract natures come into being in our psychological mind, translate into our lived reality? As a multi-lingual person and I suppose also as a psychology major as well as a women studies major, I guess I always come back to these questions. How is it that we individually, culturally and cross culturally come to experience the symbolic interactions of daily life? I am always trying to deconstruct the way that the order of our interactions affect our culture I guess. So it's no wonder that I was little less than shocked when I came across this body representation. I imagine that it is my liberal ideology and country girl approach to things,( and no doubt others have reached this conclusion through their own unique a possibly opposite path), but its plain freaky to think of practicing on such a model. Maybe it was the language... "This comprehensive system is designed to provide a complete birthing "experience", including before, during, and after delivery." Almost sound like a doula pitch...In any case, I find it repulsive to think that one would learn to understand the body, to read the body and to be 'provided a complete birth experience' on a dummy. It makes me think of learning to make love by using a blow up doll.Perhaps new interactions in the future will help me to overcome my initial issue with this body representation, then again I'm still weirded out by this other foetus in a bag thing that I was given last year. It was designed to help one identify the position of the baby in utero. It's this bizarre bright yellow bag that can be filled with air and there is this relatively anotomically correct baby inside it...you kind of have to feel around and try to figure out the position of the baby...Everytime I see it I feel like liberating the baby but then I think this device is costly and is suppose to serve a purpose. I just cannot help but wonder how these strange and unsettling body representations make us subconsciously perceive our bodies. It reminds me of the pregnant barbie, of women as cyborgs too. Eeek! Ireally think I would prefer to be used as a model in a class than to pawn off these models for learning. Resolve the disconnect!

1 Comments:

In my usual irritating way... I took offence to the words in an article about Barbie ahem Noelle... http://apnews.excite.com/article/20060415/D8H0JDA82.html"As Noelle's heart rate increased, a nurse examined her under the sheets. An umbilical cord was visible - not a good thing. Immediately, the nurse called a "code 777." Several more medical personnel burst into the room and wheeled Noelle off to the operating room where she gave regular birth to twins after a frenzied 20-minute operation."Cord prolapse = bad. Not a problem.Regular birth, 20 minute operation!? Not quite right! In fact pretty darn sickening...K-still working on the questions between demands from her three kids! Is there a time frame she needs them for?

About Me

I am Midwifery student with a degree in Women Studies and in Psychology. In my previous life, I worked as a Doula and as a palliative home health care worker. I have a passion for birth politics, reproductive rights, women's rights and their place within human rights...I am a feminist